Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition Understanding Web Technologies Chapter 9

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 2 Learning Objectives  Identify Web site and Web page development tools  Explain the importance of Web site testing  Define Web site benchmarking  Describe ways to measure Web site ROI using Web analytics  Identify Web analytics software and service providers

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 3 Web Site and Page Development Tools  Tools a programmer or developer might use to create Web pages –Markup languages –Text editors –HTML/XHTML editors –Web authoring software –Multimedia tools and scripting languages

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 4 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Markup languages –Set of rules or tags embedded in an electronic document –Describe data or define layout and formatting

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 5 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Markup languages (continued) –Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) The ISO standard on which markup languages for the Web are based, including –Extensible Markup Language (XML) –Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) –Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 6 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Extensible Markup Language (XML) –Streamlined subset of SGML –Developed in 1996 by the XML Working Group at the W3C –Used to describe data in documents transmitted over the Web –XML tags are customizable and can identify any data—the sender and receiver must agree on what the tags represent

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 7 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 8 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) –Originally developed by Tim Berners-Lee –Created to lay out and format documents for the Web Headings, text, tables, bulleted or numbered lists, images, links, and other style issues –Became an SGML standard in the mid-1990s –Tags are predefined

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 9 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 10 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 11 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  W3C sets the standards for HTML –Adds or deletes predefined tags and properties –Current standard is version More strict coding standards All tags now in opening/closing pairs and Tags written in lowercase Properties (attributes) used to define formatting being deprecated in favor of cascading style sheets

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 12 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) –Reformulation of HTML into XML –Current W3C standard for Web pages –Benefits of XHTML Stricter coding rules to help eliminate coding errors and omissions Better structured documents that display in a browser more quickly Flexibility of custom tags

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 13 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Basic text editor software –Used to create Web pages by manually typing tags and their properties as well as text content –Lacks special features common to word processors Windows Notepad

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 14 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 15 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  HTML/XHTML editors –Software designed specifically to create HTML or XHTML documents –Special features that make inserting tags and properties easier TextPad BBEdit HomeSite HTMLPad

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 16 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 17 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 18 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Web authoring software –WYSIWYG environment –Similar to creating a document in a word processor Menu commands Toolbar buttons –Automatically inserts HTML/XHTML code as user inserts and formats text, images, links, and other elements

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 19 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  FrontPage –Similar to working in Microsoft Word –Familiar working environment that shares common features with Microsoft Office products –Easy to learn and use –Inexpensive –Offers design templates and multiple working views and sub-views

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 20 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 21 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 22 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 23 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 24 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Dreamweaver –“Industrial strength” version of Web authoring software used by professionals –More complex and perhaps more difficult to learn to use for a novice –WYSIWYG environment –Multiple working views

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 25 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 26 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 27 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 28 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Tools used to create and edit multimedia content –Photoshop and Fireworks Create and edit animated GIFs Draw vector graphics Edit bitmap (raster) graphics

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 29 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 30 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 31 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Tools used to create and edit multimedia content (continued) –Flash Originally designed to provide animation for vector graphics Used to create Web page ads or online product tutorials Used to create interactive Web sites Viewer must have Flash player plug-in installed

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 32 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 33 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Tools used to create and edit multimedia content (continued) –FreeHand Graphics design program Used to plan the layout of any document that contains graphics –Brochures –Product catalogs –Web pages

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 34 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 35 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Tools used to create interactive Web page elements –Java applets and servlets and ActiveX controls Small programs that execute at the server or in the browser when a Web page is served Control interactive Web page elements, such as clickable buttons and scroll bars

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 36 Web Site and Page Development Tools (continued)  Tools used to create interactive Web page elements (continued) –JavaScript, JScript, PHP, CGI, and ASP Scripting or programming languages used to embed run-time instructions in a Web page –Build Web pages “on the fly” from elements stored in databases –Update databases with information from Web-based forms –Open pages in pop-up windows

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 37 Web Site Testing  Test all Web page features and functions before they are published to a final destination server –Links work correctly –Data submitted by visitors on Web-based forms updates databases correctly –Dynamic or interactive elements function properly

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 38 Web Site Testing (continued)  Web site should also undergo a “stress test” –Ensure that the site can function properly with a heavy load of customer/visitor activity –Hire outside testers, if necessary

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 39 Evaluating Web Site Performance  Measure the performance of a “live” site on a regular basis –Establish measurable performance benchmarks –Evaluate actual performance against the benchmarks –Learn from the experience and make necessary changes

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 40 Evaluating Web Site Performance (continued)  Measure the performance of a “live” site on a regular basis (continued) –Revisit performance benchmarks and make changes, if necessary –Begin again

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 41 Evaluating Web Site Performance (continued)  Benchmarks –Performance-based goals –Developed by observing actual performance of similar e-businesses or reviewing industry averages –Typically include sales goals –Typically include evaluation of visitors’ actions at the Web site

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 42 Evaluating Web Site Performance (continued)  Web analytics –Used to help determine Web site return on investment (ROI) –Identifies and measures visitor behaviors and actions Visit or session measures continuous requests for pages by a single visitor’s Web browser for a specific period of time

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 43 Evaluating Web Site Performance (continued)  Web analytics (continued) Unique visitors measures the number of individual visitors to a site Repeat visitors measures unique visitors who return to the site Page views or impressions measures the number of times a specific page is viewed Page views per visitor measures how deep a visitor goes into a site

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 44 Evaluating Web Site Performance (continued)  Web analytics (continued) IP addresses identifies origin of unique visitors Referring URLs indicates how visitors reached the site Browser type identifies which browsers visitors are using Click-stream analysis shows the path visitors take from page to page at the site Conversion rate indicates the rate at which visitors become customers

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 45 Evaluating Web Site Performance (continued)  Web analytics (continued) Shopping cart abandonment indicates how many customers fail to complete their purchase  Web analytics measurement tools –Server log analysis –Page tagging

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 46 Evaluating Web Site Performance (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 47 Evaluating Web Site Performance (continued)

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 48 Chapter Summary  Markup languages are a set of rules or tags that are embedded in an electronic document: SGML, HTML, XML, and XHTML  Text editors are used to manually create Web pages by typing HTML or XHTML tags and properties as well as typing text and inserting pictures.  HTML/XHTML editors provide tools for quickly inserting tags

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 49 Chapter Summary (continued)  Web authoring tools provide a familiar WYSIWYG environment with toolbars and menus  FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Flash, FreeHand, Photoshop, and Fireworks are popular Web authoring and multimedia tools  Java applets, servlets, ActiveX controls, PHP, JavaScript, JScript, CGI, and ASP provide Web page interactivity

Creating a Winning E-Business Second Edition, Chapter 9 50 Chapter Summary (continued)  Web pages must be thoroughly tested before they are uploaded to a live Web server  Web site performance must be monitored by setting benchmarks and evaluating actual performance against those benchmarks  Web analytics is a system of Web site performance measures based on server log analysis and page tagging